Adam Prudhomme
Editor
A stray beaver will be wintering at Napanee’s Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre’s aquatic centre while staff work on nursing the Canadian icon back to health.
The beaver was displaying some peculiar behaviour when originally found in Prince Edward County. That promoted longtime SPWC volunteer Eileen Mackey to bring him to the wildlife experts at the centre.
“This beaver’s been hanging around where (Mackay) lives for about two weeks,” said SPWC assistant director Leah Birmingham. “People have been leaving apples out and he’s been coming and eating the apples, so it’s been noticed by the community for a couple of weeks and been acting kind of oddly. It was getting to the point where people could approach it and that’s just not normal behaviour. Although herbivores, they’re incredibly aggressive herbivores.”
Birmingham noted although staff refer to the beaver as ‘he’, the actual gender is unknown as it’s very difficult to identify a beaver’s gender.
When first brought to SPWC, the beaver’s fur was matted which can be a problem for the amphibious rodents. If their fur is compromised, it can lead to hyperthermia.
“I think he just had poor nutrition,” added Birmingham. “He may have been relocated, so he may have been trapped in one area and relocated to another and then he couldn’t find a food source and probably challenged to find a place where he could set up home. He was just eating whatever people were offering and not making it by very well.”
Another theory is the beaver could be suffering from Baylisascaris Procyonis-essentially it’s ringworm that is common in racoons but can cause major problems if contracted by herbivores.
Since it’s arrival, the beaver’s health has gradually been returning as he consumes a more balanced diet of bark and rodent chow.
As they continue to work on a diagnosis, they turned to the staff at Napanee’s Richmond Veterinary Clinic to do some blood work.
“It was a funny conversation because they were like ‘we don’t have any beaver references, we don’t know what’s good’,” said Birmingham. “I said just run the blood, I’ll get the beaver references, don’t worry.”
Upon referencing wildlife blood databanks, there were no immediate major concerns with the test results.
Once the weather warms up, the beaver will be released somewhere in PEC, though not where he was found as that was not a suitable habitat. In the meantime the centre is asking for donations of logs, branches and cut wood. After the holidays they’ll gladly accept any live Christmas trees, provided they don’t have any tinsel.
Like all non-profits, SPWC had a difficult year due to a lack of fundraising opportunities. They’re gladly accepting donations at https://sandypineswildlife.org/.